#DEIforDevelopment: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the Development Sector in India | 2024
The #DEIforDevelopment forum is a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed to encourage dialogue on the status and promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in India’s development sector. Through this session, Good Business Labs brings together a cohort of social impact organizations to collaboratively build our DEI capacities. We launched our first #DEIforDevelopment forum in 2023.
The Second #DEIforDevelopment Session
This year, we saw 22 organizations participate across two sessions – a masterclass and an intensive peer-to-peer dialogue session. The forum expanded its approach to DEI by introducing an expert speaker session for participating organizations that covered the theme of uncovering unconscious biases in the workplace.
Through the topical sessions conducted, we hope to work towards creating awareness, gathering ideas, sharing best practices, and building our collective capacity to advance policies that alleviate issues of gender disparity, caste and religion-based exclusion, ageism, mental health struggles, and more We focused on facilitating productive conversations that empower participants to take practical and actionable steps towards implementing DEI in their organizations.
#DEIforDevelopment – Masterclass on Uncovering Unconscious Biases at the Workplace
The session was held on April 24, 2024, and was aimed at helping participants examine how unconscious biases show up in the workplace and engage in thoughtful exercises and reflections on how to overcome them.
Unconscious bias or implicit bias is an implicit preference for, or an aversion towards a particular person or entity. It is a term that describes the associations we hold, outside our conscious awareness and control. These unconscious attitudes and stereotypes impact our understanding, actions, and decisions in an oblivious way. At work, unconscious bias can create a variety of workplace tensions and may be difficult to mitigate, because oftentimes those involved may not be aware it is happening at all. It may manifest itself in various forms and influence key decisions and behavior in the workplace.
Three takeaways:
- The masterclass helped participants understand the various kinds of unconscious biases that exist – diving into the psychology behind these different kinds of biases (like cultural, gender, confirmation, affinity and other kinds of biases).
- The participants got an insight into the implications of unconscious bias at the workplace influencing hiring and promotion decisions, team dynamics, employee morale, microaggressions and more.
- Finally, participants delved into the building blocks of how to move forward consciously as individuals, along with some corrective maneuvers at work.
#DEIforDevelopment Dialogue
As a follow-up to the Masterclass, the Dialogue was held on April 30, 2024 and was conducted in a group discussion format under Chatham House rules. Conceptualized as a forum for co-learning with all participants contributing to an interactive discussion with reflections, challenges and ideas – the group was divided into 4 breakout rooms diving into DEI themes:
- Gender & sexuality representation at all levels
- Ageism & Reverse Ageism
- Caste, language, religion, region
- Ableism, Neurodiversity & Mental Health Conditions
Over two hours, the discussion saw active discussions and the questions participants engaged with included:
- How can development sector organizations ensure that their hiring processes are inclusive and equitable for women and LGBTQI+ individuals? How can they provide fair access to professional growth pathways for them?
- What do ageism and reverse ageism in a workplace mean in the context of the development sector?
- How can organizations address the existing lack of diversity in their workforce along the axes of caste, language, religion and/or region?
- How can organizations foster a culture of open dialogue and mutual respect, where employees feel comfortable discussing their experiences and perspectives related to caste, language, religion, and region?
- How can organizations provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities or neurodivergence, ensuring equal access to opportunities and resources?
Check out the learnings document to learn more about the forum.
If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas drop us an email at info@goodbusinesslab.org.
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